Ups and Downs

HIGH STRUNG:  We spent a couple of hours this afternoon helping with an art installation. 

Annabelle, and dozens of other art class students, made three-dimensional hanging sculptures that tell stories about themselves. 

The problem was, how to hang them? 

The idea was to string a cable between the north and south walls of a stage, about 25 feet in all. The challenge was, the south wall that we had to get a fastener into was solid masonry, the north wall was a mystery.

Christian was prepared for the concrete wall, as we had anticipated that. That anchor went in no sweat. The north was was a bit different. We came to believe it has metal studs, and that's not what we were expecting, so we can only hope the anchor holds on that end. 

Christian did give the cable a mid-point support (a tension wire up to a concrete beam in the ceiling), so that will help. 

Once the cable was strung, it was time to hang the art - about 50 in all, I believe. 

We were relieved the cable held all the weight. We rearranged furniture on the stage 

REMAINS: We checked in on the European Space Agency's MIA Mars lander today. 

Turns out the poor thing took its 'lander' job a little too hard. The ESA believes it has found its craft, crash landed on the surface of the Red Planet. 

Take a look at 'before' and 'after' photos of one region of Mars' surface, Meridiani Planum, taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. First up, the 'before.'   (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

 And here's the 'after.' See that black spot? It's likely lander. 

And the shiny spot in the frame is likely the parachute of the Schiaparelli lander. 

The 'good' news is the lander did land generally where it was supposed to (about 3.4 miles/5.4 kilometers west of its intended touchdown target, but well within the landing ellipse). Obviously, the bad news is it sure didn't land how it was supposed to. 

So far, the ESA says something went wrong to cause the craft, which is about the size of a baby grand piano, to go into free fall for the last 13,000 feet of its journey. Mission command had communication with the lander up until the very last minute of its descent. 

One potential trouble spot they're looking at early is the fact that Schiaparelli's data shows that the lander fired at least some of its braking rockets for three or four seconds. They should have fired for about 30 seconds. Having only one tenth of the required braking time would mean a rough landing, for sure. 

Though the black spot in the photo above looks tiny, it actually measures an area of about 50 by 130 feet. Clearly, that's much bigger than the lander itself; it's actually what's left of the lander and the scar it left in the landscape. 

In a statement Friday, the ESA said, “Estimates are that Schiaparelli dropped from a height of between 2 and 4 kilometers (6,500 to 13,000 feet), therefore impacting at a considerable speed, greater than 300 kilometers per hour (186 mph). The relatively large size of the feature would then arise from disturbed surface material. It is also possible that the lander exploded on impact, as its thruster propellant tanks were likely still full.”

Big bummer. 

As they say in the space exploration business, "Mars is hard."

The ESA has another Mars mission in the offing, "ExoMars." Set to launch in 2020, the mission calls for landing a rover on the Red Planet. No doubt the agency will be poring over data between now and then to try to ensure their next go has a soft landing. 

Playing Around

NOT JUST BLACK AND WHITE: One of Annabelle's birthday presents this year was a fun spin on a traditional chess set. Same game, same pieces, different color, but so much fun. She *loved* it. Makes you wonder how many more young chess players you could attract if it weren't a black and white game. 

Speaking of games, another present of hers was an expansion pack for a family favorite, "Exploding Kittens." The original game was the biggest Kickstarter ever, the brainchild of Seattlite Matthew Imman of "The Oatmeal" comic fame. 

We've played "Exploding Kittens" lots, and knew we had to have the expansion pack. It comes with the brilliant addition of a human cone of shame for those who dare lose track of whose turn it was.

Poor Annabelle was the first to absent-mindedly ask whose turn it was. 

 And not too long after that, CJ didn't pay quite close enough attention. 

Bummer, Dude.

LUNCH FUN: We're trying to think of things to offer up at a Harvest Party event we'll be attending soon. During the lastest insomnia event, I remembered these fun hot dog 'monsters.'

We didn't have the right hot dogs to really do them justice (we should have short, fat hot dogs, not long, thin ones), but we decided to give them a go, anyway.

Above, we cut some 'legs' into the hot dogs, leaving a portion intact for the heads. We poked a couple of holes into the heads, hoping they'd turn into eyes. 

Then, it was into the boiling drink for a bit.

 On the other side, they looked like this. ... Not bad, and would look lots better with more legs!

Political and Birthday Parties

DEBATABLE: Today's social studies lesson came via the third and final (hooray!) debate of this presidential election cycle.

To make it more interesting, we printed out debate 'bingo' cards we found on the Seattle Times' site. 

The cards kept the kids' attention, and they each got multiple bingos, but not quite a blackout.

12: Usually, in Seattle, when we're talking about 12, it has to do with the Seahawks and the 12th Man. Yesterday the big 12 was Annabelle, as in 12 years old now, as it was her birthday.

She had classes in the morning, a Dungeons and Dragons session at noon, and the rest of the afternoon was basically what she wanted to do. We headed to Gameworks, a two-story arcade downtown.  There, the bartender made her a Shirley Temple and gave her a couple of comp game cards - nice!

She and CJ had fun playing many of their favorites, including Dance, Dance Revolution and Tank, Tank, Tank.

For dinner, we hit Lunchbox Laboratory, which we all love. 

Bee and CeeJ each entered a coloring contest there, and got a coupon for a free kids' meal for their 'trouble.'

Dessert was a great ice cream cake from Ben & Jerry's. Annabelle picked out its ingredients: One layer was Phish food, another was chocolate chip cookie dough. She had tie dyed frosting and cookie crumbs somewhere in the mix.

It was a good day!

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME: On Sunday, we watched Ortbital ATK launch an Antares rocket with a Cygnus capsule atop it, the capsule loaded with cargo to resupply the ISS. 

It was a beautiful night launch. 
https://youtu.be/NX31vCePp1o

It was an important flight for them, as it was their first since their launch pad disaster back in October of 2014, when their rocket exploded shortly after lift off, destroying the capsule, cargo and seriously damaging the launch pad.  
(Video of that disaster below - a few 'words' from the press pool as they watch it unfold.)
https://youtu.be/MZ0SgAU9LXI


Today, we followed news of the European Space Agency's Mars lander, which separated from its Mars-orbiting spacecraft, with some unexpected results. The lander was set to touch down on the Red Planet today after a seven month journey. 

From the ESA, this artist's rendition shows the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and its entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, Schiaparelli, approaching Mars. 

Sadly, shortly before landing time, the ESA lost contact with Schiaparelli, their landing craft. 

There's concern that it has been lost permanently, but of course the ESA continues to monitor and try to make contact. 

We'll continue to watch from afar, and hope for good news.

Treats, No Tricks

MEGA 'KINS: This afternoon, we made an annual trek up our hill to visit a neighbor's house. The local gentleman fills his front yard with massive pumpkins every year, and 2016 was no disappointment! 

 That's a lot of pumpkin!

Above, with a fake skull for scale. Below, some not-so-scary scarecrows.

We sure appreciate his display, and others do, too, based on the number of visitors his place gets. 

FEEDING TEENS: Saturday, we spent the whole day prepping food for the evening's activity.  We had signed up with other families from a social issues class CJ takes to provide dinner for a program serving teens and young adults. 

Called Teen Feed, the organization helps those in need in a number of ways, including by making sure homeless young people have access to a full, free meal every night of the year. 

The meal our group was preparing was being hosted in the basement of a church in the University District. We got there about 5 p.m., right when a large windstorm was supposed to hit Seattle. There was real concern that we'd lose power, so our dinner had to be something that required no electricity. Sub sandwiches it was! We'd done most of our prep at home, including shredding three heads of lettuce, slicing 5 pounds of cheese, cutting 30 tomatoes into slices and using a mandolin to slice three huge onions. We also brought two kinds of mustard, two kinds of mayo, ketchup and sriracha sauce. That way, diners could have options on their sandwiches.

We also made some desserts. I figured cookies and cupcakes are probably a staple for their meals and so we wanted to do something different. I realized I had four boxes of seasonal cereal in the basement, and there was my answer! We made different breakfast cereal bars by melting marshmallows with a little butter, and then stirring the cereal in, and then topping each different kind in a different way.

We decided to turn our Pumpkin Spice Cheerios into little pumpkin patches. We used buttercream and a special icing tip to make 'grass.'

 And then they were topped with little creme pumpkins!

 I thought they were pretty darn cute!

 We also made some Count Chocula bars. They were topped with Hershey's Hugs.

The strawberry flavored Frankenberry treats turned out to be the crowd favorite. Annabelle is pretty sure that's because of the Pinkie Pie ponies atop them. 

 We made little blue one-eyed monsters atop the Booberry bars.

CJ and Annabelle enjoyed running the dessert bar and seeing smiles on many faces!